Team Toyo Tires/ Monster Energy Race recap of the inaugural Central Europe Rally: Stage 2

Baia Mare, Romania - Today’s stage took us around the beautiful town of Baia Mare. It’s in the northern vicinity of Romania.  We had to drive for 36 kilometers uphill windy roads with loose gravel.  Rob Harris drove the Media H1 Hummer up to the starting line.  Let me remind you that the H1 in the size of two Honda Accords parked next to each other.  The drive wasn’t fun.  This was after a nigh of driving all night from our previous location.  It took us 10 hours of driving time to get here.  Windy roads and Semi trucks coming in the opposite way at 80 miles per hour so that slowed the process. We are the Hungary-Romania border crossing.  Kevin Mooney, Rob Harris (BC) are assigned to the Media H1.  Joe Parsons of Monster Energy was driving with us because he was originally riding in the MAN race/support and he decided to come along after the stage was done.  Ok again, we were at the border crossing and they asked us for our passports.  We all had them except for Joe.  The guard would not let us into Romania. We waited and waited for a long time.  They went back and forth calling “their boss” but it didn’t seem to work.  We tried everything, money, shirts and team sweatshirts but the guy would not budge.  Finally we decided to back to Hungary and try another border crossing to our hotel in Romania.  That was another 4 hour driving northeast.  Kyle had two of the guys go over to that border crossing and bring Joe’s passport.  We FINALLY crossed and drove straight to the hotel.  When I pulled my Luggage off the Hummer, the sun was coming up.  Robby called a Crew meeting an hour later so that left absolutely left no time to squeeze in a nap.  I feel tired, I am almost falling asleep right now, but I cant. 

Here are the finishing results for today’s two-lap stage:

First Lap: Robby finished 11th in 1 hour 3 minutes and 55 seconds.  4:43 minutes behind the winner Peterhansel on his Mitsubishi.

BJ finished 15th in 1 hour 7 minutes and 26 seconds.   8:14 minutes behind the winner.

Second Lap: Robby finished 4th in 25 minutes and 35 seconds.  39 seconds behind the winner Al Attiyah in his BWM

BJ finished in 31st minutes and 18

Robby is currently sitting in the 7th position at 2:10:07 total elapsed time and 4minutes and 3 seconds behind the leader.

BJ is currently sitting in the 18th position at 02:28:21 total elapsed time and 22 minutes 17 seconds behind the leader.

Be sure to check out RobbysUprising and Team Toyo Tires as Ramses Perez brings us the latest from the Monster Energy/ Toyo Tires Media Hummer live from the Central Europe Rally.